The first 300 of more than 1,000 homes earmarked for a former Derbyshire airfield are set for approval at the second time of asking.
Ashbourne Airfield is the lynchpin of Derbyshire Dales District Council’s housing plans for the next couple of decades with the former industrial site earmarked for more than 1,000 homes and acres of new employment space.
At a district council meeting on Tuesday, December 10 councillors have been recommended to approve plans from Tom Nightingale, Harrison Estates Ltd and David Wilson Homes East Midlands for 297 homes.
This comes more than a year-and-a-half after the district council rejected two sets of plans for a combined 460 homes (367 and 101 homes respectively) on the site with widespread criticism for a late addition to try to squeeze in 100 extra properties.
The 367-home plans rejected last April have now been reduced to the 297 set for approval next week, with design improvements following the previous refusal.
District council planners had previously cited concerns over the potential damage to the overall scheme and its sustainability – with the plot set to be the largest development site in the Dales.
They had written: “The district council and local community wish to see a high-quality scheme brought forward on Phase 1 of the former Ashbourne Airfield site, which will set the scene for further, more significant development (in terms of amount) on adjoining land.”
However, the design of the 367-home phase had been roundly criticised, scoring “poor or very poor against most criteria”, including an “illegible” layout, a “poorly defined gateway”, “poorly defined greenspace” with “fragmented greenspace fronted extensively with banks of car parking offering poor amenity”.
Meanwhile, construction giant JCB had stressed its major concerns about planned access routes which would not be wide enough for the company’s large 35-tonne machines to gain access to their proving grounds for testing vehicles.
Now, the district council has recommended approval, detailing: “The layout, density, design, variety, scale and appearance of the different house designs and associated landscaping scores highly in terms of the Building for Healthy Life assessment.
“Furthermore, the Design Review Panel have also assessed the proposal and consider that this submission represents a vast improvement over the previous application.
“The development would deliver a high quality and well-designed place that would respond positively to and respect the character and context of this significant edge-of-settlement site.”
The council report detailing the plans writes that the development would have 10.7 per cent affordable housing (32 homes) and see £2.2 million in education contributions, £243,000 for highway improvements, £250,000 to link bus services to the site and £176,256 for healthcare improvements.
It says the scheme will be built by David Wilson Homes and Barratt Homes simultaneously with 80 homes to be built each year.
The breakdown of homes would be: 14 one-bed homes, 50 two-bed homes, 112 three-bed homes, 97 four-bed homes and 24 five-bed homes.
